OPEC Exports to Increase on Refinery Demand, Oil Movements Says

The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries will bolster crude shipments through to mid-December, driven by Iraq and as refiners come out of maintenance, according to tanker tracker Oil Movements. OPEC, which supplies about 40 percent of the world’s oil, will raise sailings by 700,000 barrels a day, or 3 percent, to 24.05 million barrels in the four weeks to Dec. 14, the researcher said today in a report. That compares with 23.35 million in the period to Nov. 16. The figures exclude two of OPEC’s 12 members, Angola and Ecuador . “The main driver is the increase in capacity as refineries come out of maintenance both east and west of Suez,” Roy Mason , the company’s founder, said by phone from Halifax, England . The increase will come mostly from Iraq, while the “Saudis are lagging behind,” Mason said. This time last year, Saudi Arabia reduced exports “sharply” in […]